It was a fast-paced game at the Peavey Mart Centrium on September 27. (Red Deer Rebels)

By Ashley Lavallee-Koenig

"WE OWE IT TO THE WAY WE PRACTICE"

Rebels win first regular season matchup with Tigers

Sep 27, 2024 | 11:07 PM

The Red Deer Rebels have moved to second place in the central division after a 4-2 win in their first regular season matchup against the Medicine Hat Tigers at the Peavey Mart Centrium Friday night.

The Rebels played an aggressive first period, with Matthew Gard and Carson Birnie quickly driving the puck to Medicine Hat’s net. Gard’s shot rebounded off the pads, where Beckett Hamilton recovered it and sunk the puck at 3:15, putting the Rebels ahead 1-0 with his first goal of the season. Gard and Birnie were credited with the assists.

Red Deer then kept pushing, trying to take advantage of dual power play opportunities. At 12:30, Hunter Mayo put the team farther ahead to 2-0 with a slapshot from the high slot, assisted by Luke Vlooswyk and Trae Wilke. It was Mayo’s first goal of the season.

Frame one finished with only four shots on goal by the Tigers and 11 by the Rebels.

Period two saw more turnovers as an ill-advised pass across the slot in the Rebels’ zone turned the puck over to Niilopekka Muhonen, who scored and brought the Tigers to within one. It was Muhonen’s first of the season and came at 2:49 of the second period.

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Shortly after, Red Deer went on a power play and quickly recovered their two-goal lead. Jhett Larson and Oasiz Wiesblatt went head-to-head in a faceoff in the Tigers’ zone, where Larson secured the puck and passed to Gard, who got his second goal of the night at 5:51, just as a tripping penalty to Medicine Hat’s Josh Van Mulligen ended, pushing the Rebels to a 3-1 lead.

Red Deer’s two-goal lead would be erased later in the period though after a scramble in front of Chase Wutzke’s net. Wutzke stopped multiple shots from Medicine Hat, but rebounds gave the Tigers the opportunity they were fighting for. Niilopekka Muhonen recovered the puck and passed to Andrew Basha, who then sent it to Josh Van Mulligen in the high slot where he proceeded to score.

It came at 14:12 and brought the Tigers one point closer, making it 3-2, and still in favour of the red and black.

The period closed with the Tigers at 16 shots on goal and the Rebels 23.

There was little action in the start of frame three though until Jeremiah Roberts scored at 7:28, assisted by Jhett Larson and Matteo Fabrizi, sending Red Deer further ahead to 4-2.

Medicine Hat quickly tried to recover the point, sending the puck up and behind Wutzke’s net where it rebounded off the glass. The Tigers struck the puck out of the air and into the net, however they were denied the goal because of the high stick used to make the shot.

The Rebels then moved to the defensive for the remainder of the game, focusing on maintaining their two-point lead. The Tigers pulled their goalie in the last three minutes for a one-man advantage, and Matteo Fabrizi sent the puck across the neutral zone to the open net, where it bounced off the left goalpost.

The fast-paced gamed finished in Red Deer’s favour at 4-2, with the Rebels totaling 29 shots on goal, and the Tigers 22.

Head Coach Dave Struch commented on the team’s defensive plays in the game.

“I think we owe it to the way we practice. The guys tracked hard and back-checked hard, so any time you can give your players an opportunity to get on the defensive side of teams like this, you can expect better results and I thought that our guys did a good job,” he said.

He added that overall he was happy with the Rebels’ performance and both expects and hopes to see a similar calibre of play on Saturday night.

The Tigers and the Rebels will go head-to-head again Saturday, September 28, at 7:00 p.m. at Co-op Place in Medicine Hat.

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